Not too concerned at first In 1987 I was employed as a press operator at Hallowell Printing on Water Street in Hallowell. I remember that day like it was yesterday.

There were some advisories out about the rising water in the Kennebec but not too many people were very concerned until about mid morning. That's when all hell broke lose in the shop and the employees started to disconnect as many of the electric motors on the equipment and place them on the elevator to bring them to the safety of the second floor and out of danger of the rising water.

We then tried to remove as much paper as we could form the shop and place it in a truck that we parked up on the hill in Hallowell. By mid-afternoon the water from the river was lapping the front doorstep and we evacuated the building.

None of us knew how long we would be out of the shop or how high the water would rise but as it turned out, we were out of the shop for two days. That meant that for two days our equipment, including my press, was submerged in 6 feet of silty Kennebec River water.

The day after we evacuated, I traveled from my house in Augusta via the Turnpike to Western Avenue because Water Street in Augusta being impassable. When I got to Hallowell Printing, I went to the shop (by boat) and entered through a second-story door. I could only make my way to the stairway leading to the pressroom downstairs because the flood waters had not yet receded. I ended up having the day off.

When we finally got to enter the building, we found about an inch of silt on the floor, and in every nook and cranny of the equipment. We took the presses apart and tried to clean the silt out of all the bearings and gears and electronics of the equipment. A month passed before all the equipment was up and running.

It was an experience that I never want to go through again. Hallowell, as well as many other communities along the river, was devastated.

Hallowell Printing is still there and two of the employees that went through the flood are still there, although I have since moved on.

Charlie Fontaine

Augusta